From Wikipedia:
The use of recognition stripes was conceived when a study of the effects of thousands of aircraft using IFF on D-Day concluded that they would saturate and break down the existing system. Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, commanding the Allied Expeditionary Air Force, approved the scheme on May 17, 1944. A small scale test exercise was flown over the OVERLORD invasion fleet on June 1, to familiarize the ships' crews with the markings, but for security reasons, orders to paint the stripes were not issued to the troop carrier units until June 3 and to the fighter and bomber units until June 4.
The stripes were five alternating black and white stripes. On single-engined aircraft each stripe was to be 18 inches wide, placed 6 inches inboard of the roundels on the wings and 18 inches forward of the leading edge of the tailplane on the fuselage. National markings and serial number were not to be obliterated. On twin-engined aircraft the stripes were 24 inches wide, placed 24 inches outboard of the engine nacelles on the wings, and 18 inches forward of the leading edge of the tailplane around the fuselage.
In most cases the stripes were painted on by the ground crews; with only a few hours notice few of the stripes were "masked".[1] As a result, depending on the abilities of the "erks" (RAF nickname for ground crew), the stripes were often far from neat and tidy.
An earlier use of black and white bands was on the Hawker Typhoon and early production Hawker Tempest Mark Vs. The aircraft had a similar profile to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and the bands were added to aid identification in combat. The order was promulgated on 5 December 1942. At first they were applied by unit ground crews, but they were soon being painted on at the factory. Four 12 inch wide black stripes separated by three 24-inch white, underwing from the wingroots. From early 1943 the Typhoons also had a yellow, 18 inch wide stripe on each of the upper wings, centred on the inner cannon. All of these markings were officially abandoned 7 February 1944.
I "stole" my RV-8 paint scheme from a WWII P-51 but I always wondered how the configuration of the invasion stripes was decided upon. I notice that there are considerable differences in the pattern of stripes... some are only on the bottom of the wings, some on top and bottom, and similarly different or even non-existant on the fuselage or horizontal tail. I contacted the Smithsonian Aviation Museum to see if they could find the original operations order that mandated the application of invasion stripes prior to D-Day but they have not responded.
